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Updated Thursday, February 25, 2010 10:47 am TWN, By Jan-Henrik Petermann, dpa



	At the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Reasearch (IGD) in Darmstadt, Germany, a flat screen displays images of scanned exhibits from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (dpa) Enlarge Photo

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Digital depot may archive world culture in 3-D

Alternatively, a laser scanner can shoot light points at busts, columns, spears or vases. “The overlaying cloud of points creates triangulations, which lead to a replica of the object.” The software's algorithms are supposedly so precise that they can pick up tears or wrinkles.

And processes that work in 3-D are even less trouble in 2-D. In a 2004 project, the Mona Lisa was scanned to check the surface and color conditions of the world's most famous painting.

“That's more of a side event for us,” said Stork.

When its fully developed, 3-D-COFORM should also include pictures, texts, videos and audio works. The computer scientists promise “a real multimedia format.”

Once data and metadata are completely linked, more kinds of search requests should be possible, able to catalogue data on excavation projects or check art history hypotheses. Thus, a scientist could request a search of all statues by a certain artist from Cyprus.

So far, researchers have found partners from five different countries. Prestigious museums are testing the technology or have already announced plans to cooperate, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Florentine Museum, Cyprus' World Heritage sites and Berlin's city museums.

Just like Google's goal of digitizing all books, 3-D-COFORM's creators are as ambitious when it comes to museum pieces. They want to “digitalize mankind's legacy.”

But, unlike Google, they aren't working for a private company, a fact that has caused many to question Google's motives. It's also telling that the project has won some support from the European Union and several countries, says Stork.

Eventually, the goal is to extend online access to laymen. “We don't want to automatically digitize everything, we're first focused on delivering the technical basis.”

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